Am I committing the sin of superstition?

[yawnernonner]

I told someone (who’s been a Catholic for a long time) that I don’t touch the number six with my right hand, and he told me that that’s the sin of superstition, and that I have to stop doing that. Anyway, I use both my index and middle finger to click, and today I hesitated to click on someone’s profile picture, because it was an image of Mary, and I was about to use my middle finger, like normal. Is this also superstition, or am I just being respectful if I take care to use my index finger?
(Am I causing scandal by asking this question?)

 

[roamincat]

It sounds like you may be acting overly scrupulous. The number six is representative and associated with the devil because it is one short of the number seven, which is representative and associated with God. However, the numbers themselves are neither inherently evil or good. I hope this helps.

 

[yawnernonner]

I touch six now. It’s alright. My question was about Mary.

 

[roamincat]

If you believe it to be necessary out of superstition then it very well could be, but if your intention is simply to show respect then I think that is different. I do not think it would be disrespectful in the first place because your intention is not to be disrespectful.

 

[CradleRC58]

6 is the number that falls between the numbers 5 and 7.

I have two Catholic Bibles sitting here and both have pages in them numbered 666. I also have a 100 year old prayer book sitting here that has a page number 666.

In all my years of reading good Catholic material I have never come across any information or guidelines concerning which finger or fingers to touch an image of Mary.

Be at Peace and forget about it

 

[yawnernonner]

My only worry is that I act in superstition in trying not to do something offensive.

 

[Wesrock]

There’s nothing offensive about the middle finger, whether to touch or to point. What’s offensive is making a certain gesture at someone else as a curse or insult. It’s not like I’m forbidden from typing the letter F and three other letters because they’re associated with a bad word.

 

[Reuben_J]

My only worry is that I act in superstition in trying not to do something offensive.

No, I don’t think that would fall under superstition. It is just that you want to be respectful and perhaps reverent to the image of the BVM and therefore do not want to use any gesture that may be considered offensive in real life.

It is the same when we bow to the pictures of BVM to indicate our respect and love for her, but not bowing does not mean otherwise for us.

You don’t have to if you don’t want to but using the middle finger is not considered offensive ordinarily and spiritually. More importantly is your intention.